Nothing Good Can Come Of This
by KirbeeDesirae
Summary: With each addition to the Cullen family, Edward's life has changed. Here are his thoughts about each one, ending with Bella.
1. Esme

_Summary: With each addition to the Cullen family, Edward cannot stop his life from changing. Here are his thoughts each time, ending with Bella's change._

_Author's note: At the beginning, Edward may seem more selfish than we're used to. I like to think he's matured over the decades. For humans, the addition of an unwanted family member can be traumatic, and we're not immortal and unchanging._

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I heard Carlisle's mind working frantically on the other side of the room. He was repeating the changing process over and over in his mind, assuring himself he hadn't missed something important. When he finished that, he began trying to rationalize this mess.

This Esme woman.

I sighed loudly, hoping to bring his attention to me. Subtly, of course.

"Alright, tell me what you're thinking," Carlisle finally said.

"That nothing good is going to come of this."

It was Carlisle's turn to sigh. _She was going to die, Edward. Just like you were. _

"Except she had chosen to die. She threw herself off that cliff. She didn't just _trip_," I seethed. I felt as if my limbs would pop off my body from the force of my anger.

When Carlisle had come slamming into our bachelor quarters in Ashland, Wisconsin, earlier that night, I had been shocked at first. His eyes were more wild than I had ever seen as he laid that broken human woman on our sofa. He had ordered me to make sure he stopped drinking, putting his trust in me to make him pull away, even though my eyes were black and my nostrils flared from the scent of her blood. _I _was the one who needed restrained. But of course humored him.

For a short second I thought Carlisle's control had finally broken, that he had finally killed a human, until I saw his memories of her lying in the morgue, presumed dead with no one to mourn her.

And that he had met her before. And noticed her.

I narrowed my eyes at my mentor, wishing he would think a little bit more so I could figure this out. Was he up to something? Could this be more than just a coincidence?

_I assure you I did not plan this, Edward_.

Carlisle had bitten her, just as he had me, only adding her wrists into the mix, hoping to speed up the change.

So now we waited.

This woman was probably pretty before she threw herself into a freefall off a cliff. Her hair was a lovely caramel, warm and soft-looking. She had a mouth that was slightly tilted in a smile in the temporary unconsciousness that took place between the bouts of liquid fire that coursed through her body. She looked kind.

But she looked so broken. Could venom really heal this?

Her legs were twisted at odd angles, and her tibia actually punctured the skin of her left leg. And that wasn't even the worst of it. A stick went in one side of one bicep and out the other.

"Did anyone see you?" I questioned. I could easily envision the townspeople of Ashland gathering their torches and pitchforks, raising a mob, and storming the door of the pale doctor who stole a mangled body from the morgue for nefarious purposes. Pitchforks were plentiful in dairy country, with testosterone-filled war veterans looking for someone to shoot being the only thing more common around here. Carlisle _does _look a little German with his blonde hair.

_There aren't exactly guards watching the morgue night and day_.

"Of course. What about on the way over here?" Our existence in the small town was so calm and peaceful. I liked the change of a small town.

_I stayed in the shadows. I was careful, Edward. I wouldn't jeopardize us_.

"What will we do with her?" What would she be? Gentlemen didn't just live with a lady. It wasn't proper. We couldn't have the same conversations or go to the same establishments. We would have to dress better around the house. Women didn't like socks with holes in the toes or shirts with missing buttons.

We would have to change our lives for her.

_Is she wants to stay with us, she'll stay. If she wants to go on her own, we'll teach her as best as we can, and then let her go. _

"Will we keep her here?"

_For now. We'll see how uncontrolled she is when she's finished._

I remembered well my own days of being a newborn, because at the tender age of three, they were barely behind me. I still didn't have enough control to go to school, but Carlisle said I was going to begin the next time we moved, and now that was suddenly sooner than I had ever dreamed. I could only be around humans if I focused on their thoughts of their lives, remembering they all had someone who would miss them. It was those sad few who had no one who tempted me the most. Those kindred spirits.

So we'd be moving if she was as wild as me. Again. For this woman. Wonderful.

The three days we spent waiting on this woman to finish changing were long ones. We were both eager and anxious at the same time, curious to see how she turned out but nervous of how she could react. Carlisle and I didn't talk much as we sat there, looking at her, observing the gradual changes. I was irritated with him. I thought we were partners in this. Friends. Family. A family doesn't make a big decision like adding a new one without talking to everyone.

He had brought this woman into our lives, putting us at risk. And it was beginning to look like maybe he...felt something for her. What about me? What about Edward? Was I just being replaced by this woman?

Even though I detested what she was doing to my life, what she had the potential to do it, when her change was over, she opened her eyes, and a little part of me fell in love. She was the first female vampire I had ever seen, and she was so extraordinarily beautiful. I had never seen a creature so lovely, and if I had still been human, I'm sure I would have fallen to my knees in front of her. And she looked so scared as Carlisle's soothing voice explained what happened to her, who we were. She seemed accepting of it all, and I thought maybe her change went better than mine

Her first hunt was awkward, but we all got through it.

Just as we got through the next weeks, the next months. It was almost a year before Esme was calm enough to sit on the sofa and converse or read a novel. We moved north, to Canada, and found a cabin in the woods where we could help Esme adapt to her new life. It was easier to have her far away from humans at first. Carlisle and I both spent an inordinate amount of time restraining from her from their scent miles away. For those first months, I didn't get to know the real Esme. She was just a major inconvenience in my life. I spent half my time on top of her, trying to stop her from shredding our sofa or ripping the walls down.

And then, finally, would could bring her closer to civilization without her eyes turning black, without a growl ripping from her chest, and I was relieved. I hated the sound of her growls; they made me remember what animals we were. Carlisle and I both had ours under control, but she was still so new, so natural. What we were. Maybe that's the part I hated the most about her change. She reminded me of what I truly was. I could pretend to be a civilized gentleman, but in all honesty, I was that growling, writhing animal just as much as she was.

Toward the last months of her first year, we also found she and Carlisle got on exceedingly well. Soon, he took over most of the Esme-restraining duties, and miraculously, she needed restraining less and less. He spoke to her, telling her stories of his past life, or of things we would all do in the future. She would be growling and thrashing, and he would simply grab her wrists and look into her eyes and talk to her about the most wonderful things. Soon, she would be relaxed, and instead of gripping her wrists, he would be holding her hands.

_Nothing_ good could come of that.

Esme really came into herself at the 18-month mark. That's when she could smell humans without running toward them, when she could read and write, when she began being an active part in our plans. It was the first time her thoughts were actually worth listening to, and not just a constant whining for blood. I was getting so tired of that.

That was also when she turned her attentions to our cabin and to me.

I had been existing under the assumption there was no need to monitor Carlisle's and Esme's thoughts. Everybody deserved at least the privacy of their minds since none could be found in the auditory sense because of our hearing. I was so wrong. One day, I came home from exploring the woods only to find throw pillows and area rugs and _drapes_ in our cabin. My jacket and hat were hung on a peg next to Carlisle's. My shoes were no longer tossed about the main room.

"Edward! Don't forget to wipe your feet," Esme called as she floated around, putting up knick-knacks and other feminine fripperies. _I hope he doesn't mind that I gathered some of his torn clothes to mend. It's such a shame to waste things with just little tears. _

"You gathered my things from my room?" I asked quietly, and she immediately jumped from the surprise of my response to her thoughts rather than words. Of course she knew I could, she just didn't know that I would.

"I wasn't sure when you would get home, and just wanted to get started," she answered.

"We're immortal, Esme. I'm in no hurry."

When she looked down, I felt a little remorse for snapping at her. It was all so obvious in her mind. She just wanted to love someone, and this was her way of loving me. More accurately, she wanted to _mother_ something, and since her only thoughts of Carlisle were increasingly lurid, it was her plan to make me the subject of her babying.

I was going to have none of that.

My iron will was soon bent by the two of them. It was pathetic, really. I just let her. My human mother had raised me to be a gentleman, and there was to much of that remaining in me to push away all her attempts. So my clothes became repaired and new ones began appearing. She bought me books and music and found things for my room.

And it was made all the worse by their minds. Now that I had searched for hers that one time, it seemed impossible to turn it off, no matter how I tried. And I tried _so_ hard. One of my goals for my eternity would be to turn this off. Somehow.

It was at 24 months that Carlisle and Esme kissed for the first time. I had never felt more like a voyeur, but their thoughts were screaming so loudly. Not at me, of course, but just in general. I couldn't ignore them, so I ran from the house. I stayed away for a few days, to give them time.

Suddenly, I had the urge to take trips on my own when I had never wanted to be on my own before. Truthfully, the idea scared me more than a little.

At 30 months, they married. She was beautiful and he was handsome, just as all brides and groom are. I was the only one there to witness the ceremony, and it was official: they were paired up but I was the third wheel. Alone.

And instead of Carlisle's dead wife's little brother, I became Carlisle's wife's brother. Our family had changed, and I couldn't tell Carlisle that nothing good would come of this anymore, because the change for both of them was distinctly for the better.

But I did hear those words from Esme whispered to Carlisle, after she had been a vampire for 72 months, when I walked out the door on my own to broaden my palate to the greatest cuisine of all: humans.


	2. Rosalie

**Rosalie**

Well, he did it me again.

Carlisle brought home another human woman. Was there to be no end to my suffering? Our lives had just reached a level of normalcy again: I was fully back on the wagon after my little rebellion; Esme had stopped walking on egg shells around me, afraid of insulting me and causing me to run off again, and Carlisle loved his new job here in Rochester.

It had been just another quiet evening during an April cold snap in 1933. I had turned off the radio in my room after listening to the news. It was just so alarming, but it was as if the humans couldn't see what was going to happen. More likely, they were choosing not to see. I was rifling through a crate of old piano music Esme had purchased for me in an estate sale a few counties over when I heard a sound on the roof.

_It is such a waste_, Carlisle thought. He was a blur as I saw him leap past my window, landing in our back yard. I made a few quick notes on the sheet I was looking at before going downstairs to investigate, meeting Esme on the landing. At the sound of an unworldly shrink from the dining room, we sped up, entering just as Carlisle pulled away from a woman's neck.

While Esme stayed against the wall and struggled to avoid the pull of the fresh blood, I watched with fascination as he also bit her wrists and ankles, licking the punctured skin to keep the venom in. The tug at the back of my throat was easily ignored. I knew the consequences of human blood. I had my fill of it for four years. It had no allure to me now.

I approached her side and took in the matted, dirty sight before me. Her hair was coated in blood from several scalp wounds, one looking like it would have been fatal. Her nose was broken and several teeth seemed loose, as if someone had hit her in mouth a few times. Yellow-brown bruises were appearing over her body, framed by her tattered clothing. Buttons had been ripped from her clothes, zippers split. I could smell the seminal fluid from more than one man. Under her fingernails, I saw a fine layer of blood and skin. She had fought.

Before tonight, she had been the most beautiful human woman I had ever seen. An angel had indeed fallen.

When I looked up, Carlisle was watching me apologetically.

"What were you thinking, Carlisle?" I asked. "_Rosalie Hale_."

I knew that Carlise knew me well enough to know the concerns I voiced with only my disdainful tone. Was he seen? Will she be missed? What will we do with her? Where will we go? What...happened?

"Her fiancé was responsible for this," Carlisle said with disgust. "I'm sure he'll begin spreading about a plausible reason for her disappearance."

What man who loved a woman enough to marry her would do this? There was no denying I felt a deep pity for Rosalie, maybe more than I felt for Esme because she didn't make the choice to die, but I still didn't welcome her addition. It was just too dangerous for us. Newborns were so volatile; she could betray us in a split second.

I didn't understand Carlisle. He couldn't change every desolate human he ran across We couldn't just become a ragtag band of vampires. Vampires weren't even pack creatures. We normally preferred a solitary existence.

And surely this couldn't be a kinder choice than letting her die. She would have already been dead from one of her head wounds by now. It would have been over, but instead, she was writhing on our dining room table, and her screams had already taken on the hoarse sounds of a raw throat. She was pleading for death.

She was thinking about how it ended, and I watched the details of her attack. She thought about taking revenge on Royce King II, about torturing him just as cruelly as she had been. And then, almost as if was too much, she started thinking about a little house with a man and woman sitting hear a fire. I thought at first it must have been her family, but when I saw their faces, I knew it wasn't Mr. Hale from the bank, but a young couple with a little baby.

_I'm dying! I'll never have a baby of my own. He would've been so beautiful_. _Someone to love me_.

I stopped listening to her thoughts and switched to Esme's and that sound of my name in her mind.

_She could be exactly what Edward needs, someone to spend forever with. He needs someone to love like I have Carlisle._

I stepped away from Rosalie to stand next to Carlisle before Esme could get more carried away. She would be imagining next that I was already in love with this woman, what kind of suit I'd be getting married in. Absolutely nothing good could come of this idea.

Esme and I went hunting during the first day of Rosalie's change, and when we returned, Carlisle went so we would all be strong enough to manage a newborn. When we got back, Esme shooed me out of the room to clean and redress Rosalie, murmuring over the 'poor dear.'

When Rosalie awoke, poor dear was the very last way I would have described her. Esme had awakened with fear, acceptance, and, primarily, thirst.

Rosalie Hale sat up with a snarl on her lips and vengeance in her mind. There was hate in every brainwave. Hate for Royce, hate for her parents for not saving her, hate for Carlisle for changing her, even hate for me because of the words I said during her change.

"What have you done to me?" she demanded.

The three of us had circled her, and Carlisle spoke to her, just as he had Esme, but it didn't have the same result. She just grew more and more furious.

"I never asked for this! I don't want to be like this, to be a monster," she screamed. She was indescribably beautiful, but the combination of fury and beauty was truly frightening. Her recklessness could prove dangerous to us all.

"You don't have to be a monster, Rosalie," Carlisle promised, telling her of our lives, how he had never drank human blood. Esme and I couldn't chime in any support in that area. At least Esme's slip had been an accident and not a four-year bender.

When Carlisle had reassured her as much as possible, she sat silently, looking at each of us. _They're more beautiful than I am. It's unfair that I have to live with people who all outshine me. I'm supposed to be the favorite. _

This much I could help her with. Darting out of the room, I returned in a flash with a mirror that held in front of her face. She gasped at her image. _I'm stunning, but my eyes are hideous._

"They'll become the color of ours in a year," I told her, and she raised her hands to hold it for herself for closer inspection. "Careful. You're stronger than you were. Don't break it."

She crushed it her hands despite my warning and looked shocked. I sighed. We had just got Esme raised, and here we were, starting all over again.

We soon found out that the thirst didn't control her as much as it had Esme. Instead, Rosalie Hale was consumed with vengeance. That's what made her behave so well around the house and in the forest hunting. She proved to Carlisle that she could control herself enough to go after her attackers before we moved. We even had a new place picked out: Tennessee.

While Rosalie was on her best behavior, Esme started dropping hints, and when I refused to take them, Esme became more blunt, stopping by my room one day while Carlisle and Rosalie were hunting.

_Why don't you give it a chance, Edward?_

I didn't understand why Esme couldn't just understand. During my four years hunting humans, I learned to be alone. I didn't crave company like she did. I didn't even appreciate company the way Carlisle did. I was fine alone. If my alternative to being alone was Rosalie, I think I greatly preferred alone.

"Esme, not everyone is meant to be in love," I answered, smiling as kindly as I could. As much as she had initially annoyed me, I was growing to love this vampire mother of mine.

"Everyone says that until it happens to them, and it doesn't just magically happen," she said, taking my hand. My instinct was to pull it away, but I knew it would hurt her. "Sometimes you have to put a little effort into the fire to get it started."

"I'm not sure there's a spark to begin with."

_What if he's always alone? I can't bear it. I'll always feel like I took Carlisle away from him. I made him the odd one out. This is my fault. _

"Please, Edward, just give her a chance," she pleaded. "Surely you've noticed how beautiful she is."

"Surely you're not encouraging shallowness," I smirked.

"She has other lovely qualities if you'd just get to know her."

"Alright, Esme, I'll try," I relented. I did not want to do this. "How do gentlemen go about courting these days? Or do vampires have different customs? Shall I give her a bouquet of freshly killed woodland animals?"

"Edward," it was Esme's turn to sigh, "just behave like the gentleman you are. I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

Later that night, I contemplated what exactly that meant. In my human years, a man wishing to court a woman would first approach the woman's father, so that was out of the question. Then, you would talk with her in her parlor, take Sunday drives, escort her places, all to get to know her. Today, girls like Rosalie went on picnics and dancing. She wasn't really at that stage yet.

So that left what? Sitting in the parlor chatting.

I sighed and went downstairs, hoping she would be in the parlor.

Luckily, she was, and I sat across from her. She had been staring into space, and when I sat down she looked at me hopefully. _What is he up to now? He's too sneaky. I never know what he's thinking. _

"I just thought I'd come down here to talk with you," I smiled. "We haven't had much time to get to know each other"

_I hate it when you read my mind._

"I'm sorry. I know it's not very polite, but I can't stop it. I was born with it, just as you were born with your beauty."

That placated her a little, and I hard time not smirking. This courting business wasn't so difficult after all.

_Edward?_

I raised an eyebrow.

_I want to go see Royce. Not talk to him, just watch him, so I can plan what I'm going to do when I have enough control. Will you go with me? _

"Rosalie, I'm not sure that's-," I began before her thoughts interrupted me with impatience.

_I'm not going to hurt him or anyone tonight. I'm sure of that. But I want to see him. It will give me strength. I don't want to ask Carlisle or Esme because they're like my parents. They'll disapprove but let me do it. I don't want guilt. I just want what I deserve. What they deserve._

What she called strength was fuel for her anger. But I acquiesced, and my courtship of Rosalie Hale took a very unexpected turn. Literally. Within the hour we were lurking in some shrubs while Rosalie peered in a window to a sitting room that should have been hers by now. We were listening in, and I had to yank her to the ground when she attempted to leap at the sounds of her name.

"But what about Rosalie," Mrs. Kingston asked her son. "Is it truly proper for you to be pursuing another girl so soon? The grass hasn't even grown over her grave yet. People will talk."

"Mother, she was would have wanted me to be happy," Royce said with an imitation of sadness in his voice. "She wouldn't have wanted me to miss out on the chance for love again because of her terrible accident."

Rosalie growled beside me, and I grabbed her hand to hold her back. And I looked down at our cold, white hands and felt nothing. Even her cuticles were beautiful, but they weren't meant for me. Her fingers weren't meant to be interlaced with mine.

"I'm not going to let you go in there and kill those two humans," I hissed.

Later, when we were strolling in the shadows back to her home, she thanked me for stopping her.

"I want to save Royce for last; I know that now," she explained.

"No problem. Let me know if you need any help."

"I want to do it alone," she answered. _How peculiar. I thought he disapproved of me wanting to kill them. Why would he offer to help me?_

"That's what big brothers are for, Rose," I answered.

She looked at me sharply, and I didn't need to be a mind reader to understand her offended sensibilities.

_Brother! He thinks of me as a sister? Well, I never! What kind of man is he? Esme said I'm the most beautiful vampire she has ever seen! This is absolutely ridiculous! _

I could tell I would spend decades paying for this. If only Carlisle would listen to me when I have feelings about nothing good, I would be saved a lot of trouble.

* * *

**Next up, Emmett. One reviewer asked why I used months for Esme's age, and I did it as sort of a parallel to human children. Sometimes people will say their baby is 14 months or 22 months or whatever, and I think Edward would have viewed new vampires who are not at his level yet as children (dangerous, but children). I didn't do that with Rosalie since I didn't want to convey a sense of time passing as much. Perhaps with Emmett. Please, let me know what you think!**


	3. Emmett

The screams for Carlisle could be heard while Rosalie was still over a mile way from our house.

As if the fear and worry in the mind and the sheer panic in her voice hadn't filled me with enough dread, the sight that met Carlisle, Esme, and me when we ran out to meet her confirmed our worst fears. Rosalie's eyes were blacker than I had ever seen them and her chest was heaving as if she couldn't draw enough unneeded oxygen into her body. But the most damning of all was the blood smeared all over her normally immaculate clothes and the crumpled human in her arms with a heartbeat so faint I could barely hear it.

"Carlisle, help me," she panted, gently arranging the massive man on the forest floor. "He was attacked by a bear. His wounds, they're so bad. But I _won't_ let him die"

Three vampire bodies sagged with relief. It was only a bear. She hadn't done this.

As Carlisle knelt and began examining the man's wounds, he cataloged him in his mind, confirming what I could see with my own eyes. He had lost over two pints of blood; his intestines were severed; one lung was punctured; his heart had been nicked. It was a fluke he was still alive.

"Rose," Carlisle whispered, "he won't even make it to the hospital. He's dying. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

"Change him," she said quietly, stroking the unconscious man's hair. Then more fiercely, she growled, "_Change him!_"

"But you hate being a vampire," I spoke for the first time.

"I can't let him die. I need him," she begged.

I wanted to argue more, to ask her why she would condemn another to the life she hated, but Carlisle interrupted us. He believed her. He felt sorry for her, and he was all-too-willing to indulge his daughter in this. Esme had made him soft, a believer in love and mates and that nonsense.

"We don't have any more time to waste," he said, scooping up the future vampire. "We'll move him into the spare bedroom now; we won't be able to later. Edward, I need your help."

I held together some of the gaping flesh to slow the blood flow as we ran in sync to the house, up the stairs, and into an unused but fully decorated room. Carlisle wasted no time sinking his teeth into the stranger's neck as Rosalie recommenced stroking his hair. When Carlisle pulled away, she immediately went to this man's side, taking his hand into hers.

His eyes shot open at the pain, and he bellowed as he felt the fire invade his body, but as he sank back down, he saw Rosalie.

"You're still here," he whispered. "You're my angel, aren't you?"

"I won't leave," she promised, leaning closer to his face.

"It hurts," he moaned.

"I know. It will end, and then you'll feel as you never have before." She blew her breath onto his face, soothing him. She looked into his eyes, and in her mind, she was willing him to ignore the pain and think only of her.

"When it's over….do you disappear?"

"No. You'll be with me forever."

Her voice was filled with promises that resonated someplace inside me that I couldn't recognize. Her mind was filled with him, and his was mostly filled with pain, but his few cognizant thoughts were of her saving him in the forest. He thought she was an angel sent to be with him in his hour of need. Little did he know his hour of trial would be three days.

"I was afraid that he wouldn't still be alive when I got here," she finally said to us when she felt she had done her best to comfort him. "I was afraid to try to change him myself. I was afraid I wouldn't stop. If he would've given out on the way, I would've tried, though."

"Where did you find him?" Carlisle asked. He was worried. For a minute, I just sat back and savored the moment of him worrying about all the things I normally asked about in these situations. Was she seen? Will anybody be looking for him? What will we do with him?'

"I was southwest of here about 100 miles from here, at the edge of the mountains. We were alone. He said his name was Emmett McCarty. Nobody saw us, I promise," she said. For the first time, I saw the whole scene play out in her mind.

She had been hunting by herself after we had fought about her absurd desire to drive my new car. She was practically still a newborn! There was absolutely no way she was getting near my 1935 Auburn Speedster. I'd _think _about letting her in the passenger seat after this rather magnificent display of control.

Rosalie had run for awhile, at first caught up in her anger, but when the scent of a large grizzly and an equally large human had assaulted her, she had been drawn as a moth to flame. The human's other friends had run when the grizzly when it caught them off guard, but he slowed it down by throwing rocks and hitting it with a fallen branch. They had been able to escape, but his chances were eliminated when the bear began fighting back.

That's when Rosalie saw him for the first time, and instead of seeing the man fighting a losing battle with the bear, she had seen her best friend Vera's little boy. The dark curls and dimples were what kept her from running the other direction, staying detached. Someday, little Henry would grow up to look like this, and she couldn't let this lookalike just slip away from life.

When Rosalie had stepped away from a tree, the bear had been lumbering toward the prostrate Emmett, ready to take the final snap to end his life. His eyes had widened as she ran at the bear, knocking it to the side as easily as a kitten. In no mood to play, she leaped onto its back with a growl of her own and snapped its neck.

She had felt no thirst for the bear, but the burning in her throat had be excruciating from the human's scent leaking across the forest. But with little Henry in mind, she approached him, kneeling.

"What's your name?" she had asked quickly, assessing her own strength. Even then, in the back of her mind, she had known she wanted him changed, and his name would be the most devastating thing to never know.

"Emmett McCarty," he groaned. After closing his eyes and opening them again, he sighed, "My angel."

Rosalie had lifted him carefully, cradling him to her, and taken off as fast as she could.

"I had to," she said, snapping me out of her thoughts.

I didn't understand, but I could see her desire for approval, so I nodded.

"I'll go toward Gatlinburg and Greystone Heights since she was at the edge of the mountains," I offered. "I'll see if anybody is missing him yet. Maybe there'll be no need to stage a death."

Carlisle nodded, then paused. "Edward, be sure to hunt while you're gone. We're going to have our hands full when he wakes up. He's….quite large."

I nodded and ran, and I had gone a mile before I realized Esme was trying catch up.

_Edward, wait for me. I want to go too. I want to see where he came from. We can both help him remember later. And then some other time, I'll bring Rosalie. _

Then, as I suspected, her mental worrying and assuaging began assaulting me.

_I'm worried about you, Edward. You'll be alone again. _

"I'll be as I have always been," I promised, not breaking from my pace. "You say it as if it's a bad thing, but nothing has changed for me. I'm satisfied."

_Satisfied! Ha! You shouldn't live your life _satisfied_. I think you should try to find someone. _

"Please don't start this again. I'm fine alone. Maybe I'll find someone someday, but it not, that's ok. I have forever, after all. And I'm only seventeen," I said the last with a laugh that came out a little more harshly than I intended.

_I don't want you to be hurt when she's with him. It would be better if you had someone too._

Great. So my family would think that I was going to feel like some sort of rejected ex-boyfriend. Why couldn't they just understand that Rosalie and I would have never worked out?

"Esme, I promise I won't be hurt when they're together. That is one thing I can assure you without any doubt," I almost laughed again. It had been a struggle to _like_ Rosalie, and it was only made worse by her thoughts. She was always so _proud_ of herself.

Esme and I straightened ourselves when we reached the first town, Gatlinburg, and began roaming the streets. Her sharp eyes and ears looked and listened for anything out of the ordinary, and my mind scanned those of others until finally, I found what I was looking for.

_We shouldn't have left him out there_.

I waited for more, but none came. We kept roaming the streets, my task made more difficult by large number of visitors in town for the newly opened national park. From what I could see, Gatlinburg was just an overgrown farming community that was trying to earn a few more bucks by trying to capitalize on the out-of-towners driving through on their search for wildlife and mountain scenery.

When I finally found Emmett's home on the outskirts of town, it wasn't a cozy cabin tucked into a mountain, a symbol of man living with nature. It was a beat-down shack with a muddy front yard and sagging roof. Debris littered the area around the house. It was the epitome of Appalachian poverty.

They were all thinking of Emmett, that's how I knew this was the right place. I had expected to see a mother or a wife sobbing in a cabin, but it seemed his mother was chopping wood.

_I don' t know what we'll do without him. None of the other boys are big enough yet to do the hard work around here. The girls have their hands full with the house, and they're gettin' married up faster than I can blink. And I'll have my hands full with the little one in just another month or so. If only my Lloyd hadn't gone to check on his still that night when it blew up. And now Emmett and that bear. Why didn't those boys try to help him? I don't know what we'll do._

His mother was pregnant and his father was dead.

Esme and I snuck around the property, finding three little boys tending animals near a shed. One had been crying, but all three were stoically doing their chores. They were all afraid of what would happen without Emmett around to take care of them. It seemed he had done all the heavy work around the house in addition to acting as father to the little boys. The young men hoping to court his sisters came to him for permission.

He would be missed.

As we walked away, I told Esme what I had heard, and she looked back on the hovel with sad eyes.

"I'll take care of this," she promised. Then looking at the sky, she touched my arm. "We'd better hurry so Carlisle has time to hunt as well."

We each bagged a rather unsavory deer before heading back to our house, and by the time we got there, Esme had already concocted a brilliant scheme to provided the monetary relief Emmett's family needed so badly.

Emmett's screams were easily distinguishable two miles out. This was the worst part of the change for me. Just hearing them suffer.

When his changed ended, the four of us were as prepared as we could be. We assumed the most passive postures we could in order not to threaten him, but when he darted into a sitting position, that didn't stop him from snarling as he looked around the room.

Carlisle prepared to begin the soothing speech he had used on his three previous creations, but Emmett's eyes finally landed on Rosalie.

"You're still here?"

"Yes, Emmett, I am."

When she stepped forward, he watched her as if she were performing a fascinating show. Even as a vampire, he was entranced by her. And when Carlisle finished explaining, Emmett simply nodded, his awe of Carlisle evident. Surprisingly, he hadn't forgotten all of his human life.

_He's so different from my father. Clean and he speaks so well. _He_ wouldn't leave behind a family for a whiskey still._

"Well, my throat burns. I guess I need a cat or something," Emmett said doubtfully.

Rosalie laughed throatily and I couldn't help rolling my eyes. I think we would have all blushed if we still had the ability when she spoke again.

"I think you would like something a little bit more…._challenging_," she purred, reaching out to run a hand appreciatively down his arm. I wanted to avert my eyes, but I couldn't.

Emmett grinned and his eyes gleamed. His thoughts were crystal clear:

_Hot damn!_

I was afraid of where they would go next.

Esme coughed slightly.

Carlisle cleared his throat.

Absolutely nothing good could come of this.

* * *

Note: I'm definitely discovering this family stuff is not my cup of tea. I think I almost bored myself to death, so I'm sorry if you just read that! I'm really just holding out for the Bella chapter because romantic things are much more my style.


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